Years of Refugee Life in Serbia – Challenges for a New Beginning:Stay or Return Home? (original) (raw)
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The paper deals with refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) . Considering their numbers, Serbia is the first in Europe and fourteenth on the globe . Their destiny is not only a tragic epilogue to the political dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, but also to the breakdown of the common dream of "Yugoslav" nationality (which was meant to be a "melting pot" of various nations, ethnic groups, and religions) . Unfortunately, due to the specific strategy of nationstate building based on ethnic cleansing, refugees were one of the direct objectives of civil wars taking place in the 1990s . At the same time, massive floods of IDPs were instigated by the bombing campaign of Kosovo and Metohija conducted by the NATO alliance in 1999 .
Refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Serbia: A Study of Refugee Selectivity
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This paper examines selectivity of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Serbia with respect to certain demographic and socio-economic structures. Analyses indicated that the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of these refugees are significantly more favourable than those of other refugees in Serbia and those in the place of origin. The results show that refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who, because of war, have sought refuge in Serbia are positively selective compared to the population that moved shorter distances (i.e. within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina) for the same reason. Their educational level and participation in the Belgrade workforce, the main urban and functional centre and pole of demographic concentration, support the hypothesis that despite the forced nature of their migration, movement to Serbia as a destination rather than migration within Bosnia and Herzegovina was partly determined by economic factors in keeping with the structural characteristics of the refugees. The directions of recent refugee migrations from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia have continued the historic trend of previous migrations on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. To be specific, the centres with the highest concentrations of recent refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina are precisely those municipalities with the greatest number of persons who migrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina before 1991.
Challenges of Integrating Refugees into Croatian Society.pdf
Challenges of Integrating Refugees into Croatian Society: Attitudes of Citizens and the Readiness of Local Communities, 2019
The integration and inclusion of persons under international protection (i.e. persons granted asylum and refugees) into society proceeds through their contacts and interactions with institutions and residents in local communities where their reception and accommodation have been organised. In this process, the achievement of social, economic, cultural and all other dimensions of integration in local communities is facilitated by the activities of different national and local stakeholders in the integration system. Creating the conditions for Croatian citizens to familiarize themselves with refugees requires joint efforts by all system stakeholders and engagement to inform citizens and raise their awareness about the presence, rights and obligations of persons under protection, with a view to preventing and mitigating any negative manifestations of discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation, and to ensuring that persons under international protection become accepted and integrated members of local communities and society as a whole. With this in mind, this research has analysed capacities and challenges, and assessed the resources and needs of local and regional self-government units given their past or future experience with the reception and integration of persons under protection. Furthermore, this research has also identified the attitudes of Croatian citizens towards persons under protection and their readiness for the reception and integration of persons granted asylum in their local communities.